The 1929 version of The Letter might not be as good as the 1940 version and it doesn't have Bette Davis but it is pre-code so it's much more salacious and sexually honest and Jeanne Eagels' performance is outrageous. It's worth a look.

My review: https://dfordoom-movieramblings.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-letter-1929.html

#classicmovie #classicmovies #goldenagehollywood #1920smovie #1920smovies #precode #precodehollywood #precodemovie #precodemovies #JeanneEagels #WSomersetMaugham

http://foritismansnumber.blogspot.com/2023/05/mubi-monday-of-human-bondage-1934.html

#mubi #streaming #blog #blogger #review #MovieReview #OfHumanBondage #BetteDavis #LeslieHoward #JohnCromwell #LesterCohen #WSomersetMaugham #film #cinema #movies #filmastodon #cinemastodon #mastomovies

A scene from the 1926 film THE MAGICIAN starring Paul Wegener as "Oliver Haddo," an occult magician based on Aleister Crowley, seen below in black. Actress Alice Terry is here introduced by Haddo to Pan during a drug hallucination sequence.

W. Somerset Maugham wrote the novel The Magician (1908) upon which this film was based; it was loosely based on the life of Aleister Crowley. (Crowley later wrote a damning review of the book, accusing Maugham of plagiarism from other occult works). (Silent and Pre-Code Horror)
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#themagician #wsomersetmaugham #paulwegener #aliceterry #silenthorror #silentandprecodehorror

Read my "Did Not Finish" review of W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 classic "The Razor's Edge," set among the edgy soul-sick youth of the Jazz Age's Lost Generation but not written until an entire generation afterwards by someone now in his seventies, and feeling like it through every torturous, tedious page. Another gin and tonic before you're off to India, you say? Right-ho, governor! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5486210580

#review #book #novel #WSomersetMaugham #TheRazorsEdge #LostGeneration #JazzAge

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." - W. Somerset Maugham #WednesdayMotivation #QuoteOfTheDay #ContinuousImprovement #Coaching #LyonStrategic #WSomersetMaugham

All the #PublicDomainDay releases by #StandardEbooks (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks):

The Big Four—#AgathaChristie
Sir Percy Hits Back—#BaronessOrczy
Clouds of Witness—#DorothyLSayers
Unnatural Death—#DorothyLSayers
The Story of Ivy—#MarieBellocLowndes
Elmer Gantry—#SinclairLewis
The Bridge of San Luis Rey—#ThortonWilder
To the Lighthouse—#VirginiaWoolf
Tombstone—#WalterNobleBurns
Death Comes for the Archbishop—#WillaCather
Ashenden—#WSomersetMaugham

#OpenSource #books #Bookstadon @bookstodon

The 1926 silent film “The Magician”, based on the 1908 Nobel of the same name by W Somerset Maugham. The character of Oliver Haddo was inspired by Maugham’s encounters with Aleister Crowley.

#AleisterCrowley #SilentFilm #WSomersetMaugham #Occult

https://youtu.be/xl0dc5cB-8w

Joan Crawford in Rain (1932). Her career-best performance and Rain is one of the three or four best of all the pre-code movies. A battle of wills between a prostitute and a preacher (played by Walter Huston).

Based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham.

#precode #PreCodeHollywood #JoanCrawford #WSomersetMaugham #FilmMastodon #classicmovies #WalterHuston

Latest read, The Lotus Eater (1935) by W. Somerset Maugham. Two friends, vacationing in Capri, meet an Englishman who gave up his life as a bank clerk to live on the island until his money runs out; after which, he claims he will commit suicide.
But human will is another matter.
Coming to love Maugham, such an articulate storyteller. If there is a coolness it only serves to add to his precision and observations.
#ShortStory #Literature #WSomersetMaugham

Latest read, The Lotus Eater (1935) by W. Somerset Maugham. Two friends, vacationing in Capri, meet an Englishman who gave up his life as a bank clerk to live on the island until his money runs out; after which, he claims he will commit suicide.
But human will is another matter.
Coming to love Maugham, such an articulate storyteller. If there is a coolness it only serves to add to his precision and observations.
#ShortStory #Literature #WSomersetMaugham #Bookstodon

Rex Ingram's The Magician, a 1926 horror melodrama based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name. The novel was Maugham's hatchet job on Aleister Crowley.

One of the best American horror movies of the silent era.

My review: https://princeplanetmovies.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-magician-1926.html

#WSomersetMaugham #SilentFilms #horrormovies #AleisterCrowley

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

W. Somerset Maugham

#quotes #WSomersetMaugham

Bette Davis gives her career best performance in William Wyler's steamy overheated noirish tropical melodrama The Letter (1940). Based on a story by Somerset Maugham. Great movie.

My review: https://dfordoom-movieramblings.blogspot.com/2012/01/letter-1940.html

#BetteDavis #WSomersetMaugham #WilliamWyler #Noirvember #FilmNoir

Unfashionable writers you need to read - W. Somerset Maugham. Especially his short stories which are among the best ever written.

#WSomersetMaugham

Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it
#WSomersetMaugham